Baldwin’s Flexo Cleaner Brush boosts production at Smurfit Kappa

The installation of Baldwin’s new cleaning system Flexo Cleaner Brush on a 6 colors Göpfert Evolution press boosted the production at Smurfit Kappa in Schneverdingen, Germany. Since they started using the new cleaning system, Smurfit Kappa has registered a production increase by 5% in six months.

Smurfit Kappa is number one on the European market for corrugated packaging, containerboard and solid board. When searching for a way to pick up hickies from the plates during printing, and in addition have a full plate washing and drying at the end of a print job, the company contacted Baldwin, asking for their technical expertise. On an earlier occasion, Baldwin had performed an extensive test installation on Smurfit Kappa’s existing Göpfert Ovation press. The test results convinced them of Baldwin’s capacity and when purchasing their new Göpfert Evolution press, they ordered the cleaning system at the same time. The programs were created by Baldwin according to the customer’s wishes and optimized. Settings, such as plate thickness, are performed automatically by the cleaning system.
Dirk Sawatzki, Manager at Smurfit Kappa in Schneverdingen, says;
“When investing in new machines, we will also order the cleaning system. I am convinced that, in the near future, the cleaning system will be a standard equipment on new machines.”
Wolfgang Dietrich, Vice President Cleaning at Baldwin, comments;
“The combination of a real plate washing and drying system, plus a function to do only hickey picking, makes this system so interesting for all high quality Flexo corrugated printers.”

The Flexo Cleaner Brush significantly reduces the washing and drying time to only 4 minutes for all print units. In addition to this, the system also provides the ability to remove hickies from the plate during production without stopping the press. This will create 6 wasted boards at the most. There is no need for additional manual cleaning of plates, even plates with a fine grid of 54 screens are absolutely clean. This and the fact that the system is integrated into Smurfit Kappa’s system, means that there will be no extra work for the press operators.

About Smurfit Kappa.
Smurfit Kappa is one of the leading providers of paper-based packaging solutions in the world, with around 45,000 employees in approximately 370 production sites across 34 countries and with revenue of €8.1 billion in 2015 and locations in 21 countries in Europe, and 13 in the Americas. They are the only large-scale pan-regional player in Latin America. Their headquarters are in Dublin with regional headquarters in Paris (Europe) and Miami (the Americas). The company has an unrivalled portfolio of
paper-packaging solutions, which is constantly updated with their market-leading innovations.